Building a Digital Library: the what, how and whos of outsourcing

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Building a Digital Librarythe what, how and
whos of outsourcing

• Rachel L. Frick
• Bradley Daigle

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Building Digital Collections

• Determining the scope of the collection
• Define the resources and services
• Want to provide with the collection
• Need to create the collection
• Expertise inventory
• Deciding to outsource digital workflow
• Managing the project

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Building Digital Collections scope of the
collection

• What do you have
• Images photos, maps, art, technical drawings
• Text conference papers, books, pamphlets
• Combination newspapers, magazines
• How much? Page count, files size, finite?
• Growth rate

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Building Digital CollectionsDefine Resources
and Services

• Full Text or Key Word indexing/searching
• Images of text or HTML representation
• Relationships to other collections
• User services
• Interactive opportunities

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Building Digital Collections Expertise inventory

• Interested and capable
• Basics skills new applications
• Educational opportunities
• Catalogers
• Students
• Serialists
• ILL staff

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Building Digital CollectionsOutsourcing Digital
Production

• Determine what is important
• Images quality / depth
• Text OCR vs. Re-Key
• Metadata a lot or a little, schema, definitions
• Turnaround time
• Data transfer
• Data loading
• Local or remote hosting
• Turn key or open source

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Outsourcing Digital WorkflowGetting Started

• Identify appropriate vendors
• Know the standards and costs
• For newspapers
• Scanning from paper 0.30, film, 0.22
• OCR 0. per 1000K accuracy rate varies
• Confidence vs. Accuracy / letter vs. word
  accuracy
• Clean vs. Dirty
• Double rekey 0. per 1000k accuracy rate 99.9
• Processing (tagging) varies 1.15 per page
• Get proof of work
• References

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Outsourcing Digital WorkflowCommunication Tools

• RFP
• Statement of Work
• Master Service Agreement
• Technical Specifications
• Data dictionary
• Others Websites, Spreadsheets

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Outsourcing Digital WorkflowQuality Assessment

• Timelines
• Benchmarks
• Phasing Workflow
• Inventory Control

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Outsourcing Digital WorkflowTracking Data

• Keeping track of versions
• Administrative metadata
• Versioning software
• Delivery vs. Archival (dark storage)

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Outsourcing Digital WorkflowHappy Ending / New
Beginning

• On time and on target
• Confidence in next project
• Experience to collaborate
• Expertise to share

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Building a Digital Library The Terrifying Sequel

• Define the scope!
• Pause
• Define the scope.

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Traditional Values

• Collection and Selection
• Does it fit?
• Does it make sense?
• Not just the

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Traditional Values (2)

• Technical specifications
• Define the standards
• Outsource based on format

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Service Models

• UVa Prototype for rare materials
• Share experience
• Feedback on process

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Service Models (2)

• Not all digitization is self-generated
• Need to build on existing services
• Provide support
• Sustainability
• Trustworthy

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Some Examples

• Digital Herbarium
• http//iris.lib.virginia.edu/rmds/herbarium/
• Health Sciences collaborations
• http//carmichael.lib.virginia.edu/
• Keep expertise in-house

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Benefits

• Knowledge sharing
• Group lobbying
• Purchasing
• Format depth and breadth

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Done.